Archive | March, 2010

Lebanese blogosphere weekly link roundup (2010/03/28)

Happy Palm Sunday! It’s Time for another roundup, and I got you 8 new links today.

See you next week!

http://www.independence05.com/blog/2010/03/march-18-memorial-and-beginning-of.html
1

ArabNet goes live, and global!

The long awaited and highly anticipated ArabNet conference kick started today, with over 500 participants attending the opening ceremony, including internet and tech leaders from around the world, investors, media, entrepreneurs, bloggers and professionals from the tech industry.

The opening ceremony and the conference activities that followed were broadcast live online, giving an opportunity for everyone who couldn’t attend to be part of this unique and first-of-its kind event to ever happen in the Middle East.

Under the direction of Samer Karam and a dedicated team of geeks and coders who worked 24 hours a day for the past week, a custom-designed, cutting-edge system was developed that allows for live broadcast of video, illustrations and tweets directly from the conference. The platform also integrates a voting mechanism to allow attendees to vote for their favorite startup or idea via the live website – live.arabnet.me

Throughout the past couple of months, ArabNet has been able to nurture a grassroots movement, an online community of enthusiasts through an outreach program intended to engage young entrepreneurs and techies across the Arab World. In less than two months, we have gathered over 1,000 followers on twitter and more than 600 fans on facebook.

40 top-notch speakers, 11 supporting partners, 18 media partners, 35 startups, 50 ideas, 25 ambassadors, 12 official bloggers, and over 300 decision makers, investors, and entrepreneurs from across the MENA, Europe, and Silicon Valley have come together gather today at the Habtoor Grand Hotel to network and discuss emerging opportunities in Arab web business. Even before the conference started, the #ArabNetME twitter feed was overwhelmed with tweets from all over the world from people who believed in ArabNet’s mission. And just a few hours later, following the opening ceremony, ArabNet was trending globally on the site!

A huge thanks goes to Beshr Kayyali and Mohammad Saleh Kayali from hyperlinkpodcast.com, an ArabNet media partner, who have helped in setting up the live micro-site, as well as Maya Zankoul, the famous Lebanese illustrator who is live illustrating the conference, as well as to official ArabNet bloggers and ambassadors, and the millions of tweeters and enthusiasts from the world over who tweeted, messaged, and voiced their support in more ways than one.
Without them, ArabNet could not have gone global!

1

Meen (Lebanese rock band) Live at USJ Beirut

Meen were rocking the USJ campus last Friday night as part of the first international inter-university tournament in Lebanon “Beirut Unisports 2010”. I attended the concert with fellow twitter friends and got you these photos and videos.

Meen - Live at USJ Meen - Live at USJ 1 Meen - Live at USJ 2

Meen - Live at USJ 3 Meen - Live at USJ 4



8

Bonjus

Bonjus

Few days ago I got to drink a Bonjus (aka Bonjiss) for the first time in 9 years! I salute them for preserving their original taste. It still feels like you’re having a chemical solution, but good nonetheless!

13

Lebanese blogosphere weekly link roundup (2010/03/21)

10 New links for this week roundup.

See you next week!

1

Launching of Shankaboot – The first web drama in the Arab world

Last Friday I was invited to the launching of Shankaboot, the first web drama series in the Arab world, which took place at Art Lounge Karantina, where we were introduced to the project by the producers and also got to exclusively watch 3 episodes of the series (Episodes 1, 2, & 6).

Shankaboot Launching

This webseries tells the story of Suleiman, a 15 years old boy running his own delivery business in the streets of Beirut, who one day accidentally bumps into Ruwaida, a young beautiful girl dreaming of becoming a star, and his friend Chadi who got him into a trouble.

Shankaboot 1 Shankaboot 2 Shankaboot

Here’s a video of the producer Katia Saleh introducing the project, recorded using my phone.

And below is a summary of the project taken from the press pack distributed at the event.

Shankaboot is a collaboration between four organisations based in Beirut and London. In mid-2009, the BBC World Service Trust teamed up with Batoota Films, Zico House and the Welded Tandem Picture Company to develop the project. The idea was to create a fresh and challenging drama for young Lebanese audiences; the vehicle was to be the Internet.

Web drama remains new and relatively uncharted territory. Whilst several UK and US productions have gained massive followings, there is no established recipe for success. From the outset, there were clear risks attached to making an Arabic web drama. Would it take off with a young Lebanese audience? Could local Internet connections cope? At first, the answer was “we hope so”. Six months down the line, with some of Lebanon’s leading creative talents on board and growing interest from web users across the country, the answer is most definitely “yes”.

A well established producer and filmmaker, Katia Saleh was the obvious choice as the driving force behind the series. She has been assisted throughout the development process by Welded Tandem’s Chris Carey, who brings nearly two decades of drama and reality-TV experience to the project. The BBC World Service Trust provided the funding as well as a long track record in devising socially responsible media content. Over the past six months, the production has been based at Zico House, one of Beirut’s leading creative arts agencies.

The first challenge was to source a writer or, preferably, a team of writers. The makers’ determination to uncover and mentor fresh talent led to the decision to invite young writers from across the Arab world to pitch their ideas. The response exceeded expectations and a small team was selected to take part in an intensive story-lining workshop in Beirut. It was here that Shankaboot was conceived. Following the first workshop, six young writers from Lebanon, Egypt and Palestine were commissioned to write the first episodes of the series.

The idea had always been to exploit the internet’s potential to facilitate interactivity and audience participation. Shankabooters will not be passive viewers. Through Shankaboot’s bespoke, bi-lingual website users will be able to communicate directly with the characters; propose solutions to specific challenges; and help to develop future storylines.

The first season will comprise around 30 webisodes of 4-6 minutes each. The episodes will be released on an ad hoc basis – dates and times will be published on the website. Shankaboot’s audience will be largely responsible for shaping the second season.

I leave you now with the first episode, don’t miss checking the website www.shankaboot.com.

2

Lebanese blogosphere weekly link roundup (2010/03/14)

7 New links for this week.

See you next week!

Exotica… The Comeback! Moukarzel… The Fall Down!
0

Samir Kassir Award open to Israeli journalists

The issue has been raised on the Tayyar.org website two days ago. As you can see in the snapshot below taken from the regulations page, Samir Kassir’s contest is open to journalists in several countries including Israel!

Samir Kassir Award

I have no idea what journalists from Israel have to do with this contest, and I am surprised that until today those who are responsible of it still have not fixed it or even provided an explanation. Oh and please don’t blame it on a copy paste mistake!

14

Exotica is listening

After Exotica got heavily criticized for their Mother’s Day campaign both on the Lebanese blogs and on twitter (although I did find it catchy).

For good & bad exoticaPhoto from Joe’s Box

They responded yesterday by replacing the old billboards by the ones below, delivering a new message in the same context.

exotica-new1

exotica-new2
Photos taken by Maya Zankoul

They either INTENDED to create a controversy with their first billboards to get people to talk about them OR they simply got convinced through the feedback they got that what they did is not right and so they created the new billboards. In the first case they proved to be smart, while in the latter they proved to be listening to what the public is saying online! Either way, they’re doing a GOOD job!

9

K-Lynn lingerie fashion show at Faraya Mzaar

K-Lynn Lingerie held their annual winter fashion show at Faraya Mzaar last Saturday, March 6 2010, which is usually inspired by Victoria’s Secret fashion shows. Here are some of the photos I found on the web for the event!

10

Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes